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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jul 18.
Published in final edited form as: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009 Oct;1179:86–105. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04984.x

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Diurnal cortisol secretion during treatment with IFN-α. Patients who received interferon (IFN)-α treatment for 12 weeks exhibited significant flattening of the cortisol curve compared to non-IFN-α-treated controls. Mean raw cortisol values from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in controls (blue/solid line) versus subjects treated with IFN-α plus ribavirin (red/dashed line) at Visit 1 and Visit 2. Cortisol slopes from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in controls (blue/solid line) versus subjects treated with IFN-α plus ribavirin (red/dashed line) at Visit 1 and Visit 2 are also depicted in inserts in each graph. Compared to control subjects, IFN-α/ribavirin-treated patients exhibited a significantly flatter cortisol slope (P < 0.05) and significantly higher evening cortisol values (P < 0.05). (Reprinted with permission from Raison, C.L., Borisov, A.S., Woolwine, B.J., Massung, B., Vogt, G., and Miller, A.H. Interferon-alpha effects on diurnal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity: relationship with proinflammatory cytokines and behavior. Molecular Psychiatry. 3 June 2008, doi:10.1038/mp.2008.58, Copyright 2008 Nature Publishing Group.93) (In color in Annals online.)